


Fainting Spell

by spinninginfinity



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 15:26:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3983167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinninginfinity/pseuds/spinninginfinity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lack of sleep catches up to Josh.</p>
<p>
  <i>‘You swooned. I nearly had to have someone fetch the smelling salts.’</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fainting Spell

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt on tumblr: “You fainted…straight into my arms. You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes.”

‘Josh.’

_Not today_ , Josh thinks, shifting so he can press his cheek into a cooler part of the pillow. 

‘Josh, you awake?’

Reluctantly, he opens his eyes, squinting into the corner of the room—his own hotel room, he figures after a moment, though for the life of him he doesn’t remember how he got there. He frowns. He can’t see anyone.

‘Over here,’ the same voice says again, patiently. He rolls over to peer at Donna, who’s sitting in a chair on his other side, writing on a notepad. She raises her eyes to look at him.

‘Hey, Sleeping Beauty,’ she says, then goes back to what she’s doing.

‘What happened?’ he mumbles, or tries to. Donna seems to translate okay, though.

‘You fainted,’ she tells him.

‘What? No, I didn’t.’

‘Yep. Straight into my arms.’ She looks down, scribbling intently, but Josh catches her smile. ‘You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes.’

‘I did not faint,’ he insists.

‘You did.’ She looks up at him, not bothering to hide the smile now. ‘You swooned. I nearly had to have someone fetch the smelling salts.’

‘No. You’re kidding.’

‘Nope. Well, the smelling salts part, yes.’

‘Why would I have fainted?’ he wants to know. 

‘Uh, let’s see.’ Donna counts off reasons on her fingers. ‘You haven’t been sleeping enough, obviously, you haven’t been getting enough fluids even though I’ve told you a thousand times to keep a bottle of water with you and actually, you know, drink it, you were standing way too long, and it was hot in that room.’

He brightens a little. ‘Well, that last one’s not my fault.’

‘Was your t-shirt one-hundred percent cotton?’ Donna asks, raising her eyebrows sternly. 

‘Oh, c’mon!’

‘I’m just saying if you insist on that polycotton crap it could totally have been your fault.’

‘Yeah, yeah. That my chart, Doc?’ he asks her, nodding at the pad in her hand.

‘You missed a meeting; I’m making sure you have thorough notes.’

His stomach swoops and he sits up a little. ‘I slept through a meeting?’

‘Josh,’ she says, giving him a look that says, “attempt to leave this bed and I will take out both your kneecaps with whatever I have to hand.” ‘You passed out, you barely came around enough for us to haul you up here, in Mrs. Bartlet’s very expert opinion it’s not serious but you do need to rest, and Leo and the governor agree. Yes, you did, with full permission, sleep through a meeting.’

Her gaze goes soft, reassuring, and after a moment he relaxes enough to settle back down. ‘So I fainted, and you caught me?’ he asks.

‘Yes.’

‘ _You_ caught me?’

She frowns at him. ‘Are you questioning my ability to catch a swooning man in my arms?’

‘Yeah, can we please call it something else?’ he asks, wincing.

‘Are you doubting my ability to catch a man who’s just blacked out after heroically and not-at-all-stupidly putting himself through 20-hour days for the past month?’ she amends.

‘A little.’

‘Toby helped me.’

Josh covers his face with his hands. ‘Okay. I really wish you’d just continued with the story about you being basically Wonder Woman, or something.’

She sighs. ‘Josh. You already know I’m basically Wonder Woman.’

There’s a knock on the door.

‘Hey,’ Toby calls, ‘is he awake?’

‘We want to make fun of him,’ CJ adds.

Josh shoots Donna a pleading look. She puts the notepad down on the bedspread and goes to open the door.

‘I need you to keep it down,’ he hears her say, sterner than she’s ever been. ‘He’s still asleep. I think he will be, and clearly should be, for a while.’

‘Sorry,’ Toby murmurs, sounding abashed, and Josh smiles, giving Donna’s pad a surreptitious glance. The top page is absolutely full of notes, and she’s used her neatest, most legible handwriting.

‘You guys should go on to the event without us,’ Donna says. ‘We can join you later.’

She closes the door and comes to sit next to Josh’s bed again. ‘I think I can stall them a couple more times, make sure you’re at your fighting weight when you face your sadly inevitable humiliation. What was I saying?’ she asks.

‘How you’re basically Wonder Woman,’ Josh says, handing her back her notepad. ‘And yeah, I know.’

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feedback welcome and appreciated.


End file.
